Letting Down the World
by sue-sylvester-shuffle
Summary: Lin Beifong, ex-chief of the metalbending police, loses her bending to Amon. Tenzin is there to pick up the pieces. However, Lin still holds a deep-seated hatred for the airbender, along with the ghost of her love for him. Can he comfort her? (ONE-SIDED LINZIN.)


Lin Beifong felt her bending leave her body when it happened.

Amon's fingers pressed down hard onto her and she felt a rush of something intense that she thought was pain entering her body- but no, it was something else entirely. It wasn't something entering her, either. It was something leaving her.

When he removed his hands, she fell forward, feeling empty. Her heart was still beating, pounding along with the rhythm of the rain, but somehow she felt dead. Lin shut her eyes, too weak to even move her body out of the awkward position it was in. After a few moments, she heard receding footsteps, and she was alone. Rain danced off of her armour, soaking into her iron-grey hair. She took a deep breath, unable to speak, unable to move, unable to weep.

_I've failed you, _she thought. She wasn't directing the thought to anyone in particular, because she had singlehandedly failed so many people. Korra. Tenzin and the airbenders. Her metalbending police force. Her mother, the first and greatest metalbender. Republic City itself.

Lin wasn't sure how long she lay there, but she was losing consciousness when a loud rush of footsteps snapped her back into reality. Using all of her might, she raised her head and peered through blurry eyes to see Tenzin running toward her.

Shame pulsed through her. _I'm a failure, Tenzin, leave me to die, _she thought. Part of her thought that she deserved it, but the other part of her was just so relieved to see him that she pushed those thoughts from her head.

The airbender dropped to his knees next to her, and gently lifted her chin so that her light green eyes met his blue ones. "Lin, can you hear me?"

"T… Ten… zin…" Lin managed to croak out drowsily. Her voice was not much more than a pained whisper, but he caught it. She could feel his long fingers trembling around her jaw.

"Thank goodness." sighed Tenzin. "What happened? Are you all right?"

"Amon… he… he took it." Lin continued. "He took… my bending. It feels… feels so cold."

Tenzin's eyes widened. "He did _what?_"

She couldn't gather enough breath to respond. Instead, she lay panting. He stopped waiting for an answer and instead used airbending to raise the police chief into the air. Lin hardly felt herself being weightless because within seconds, she was on Tenzin's back with her arms draped around his bony shoulders.

Lin rested her head on his shoulder. She could feel Tenzin's hands on her back, holding her in place. Her green eyes began to droop, as the pain and exhaustion of the day caught up with her. The rain drummed like a lullaby to her, and she closed her eyes, feeling safe with Tenzin.

"Hang in there, Lin." she heard him mutter as she drifted off. "We'll get through this."

She was just delirious enough to believe him.

xXx

Lin slipped in and out of consciousness for a large portion of the days following. Sometimes she heard voices, but she couldn't really understand what they were saying. It was like they were speaking another language entirely. She could feel a hand grasping hers, though, and she thought she could see Tenzin, but her eyes were never open long enough to really be sure. Still, she was convinced that the hand she knew was holding hers was Tenzin's.

Lin woke up at one point and she was alone. Looking down at herself, Lin saw that her armour had been removed, leaving her only in a white tank top and a pair of loose grey sweatpants. There were bandages on her arms.

"Tenzin." she whispered. The room was shaking but at least it wasn't blurry anymore, so she tried to stand up. Bad idea. All she could remember was crashing to the ground and hearing shouting from another room. Then it was back to sleeping.

It seemed like all she did was sleep.

Time passed. Lin wasn't sure how much, but enough time had passed that her body felt heavy again. She had been sleeping for a while. She stood up and this time, her legs supported her. Lin stumbled over to a window and peered outside. It was the middle of the afternoon by the looks of it, and she was on Air Temple Island. Her green eyes fell to the grassy ground outside. _Earth. _Could Amon having taken her bending been just a dream?

Lin raised one bare foot, and slammed it down onto the floor under her. Usually, this would have caused a ridge of thick earth to shoot up, but now it just made a loud noise. Lin sighed, closing her eyes as shame ran through her. So she hadn't imagined it.

She was no longer an earthbender. The strenuous hours of training her mother, Toph, had put her through… all for naught. The years she'd been chief of the metalbending police… meaningless. Lin squeezed her eyes shut tightly, willing the tears that were there not to fall. _I won't cry, _she vowed silently. _I'm not that person. I won't be that person. I will never cry. Just like Mother taught you, Lin… just like she always said…_

"Lin, are you all right!?"

The sudden, overly familiar voice that hit her ears shook Lin out of her thoughts. She opened her sore eyes to see Tenzin standing in the doorway. His blue eyes were wide, and full to the brim with concern.

Lin was so relieved and overjoyed to see him that her breath left her body, and she could barely speak. "I…" was all she managed to get out. "I can't…"

"I heard a loud thud." explained the airbender. "I thought maybe you had fallen again."

The grey-haired woman shook her head. "N-No… I was just… seeing if I could still earthbend." She regretted saying it as soon as the words were out of her mouth. It sounded pathetic, and she could just see the sympathy rising in Tenzin's expression.

"Lin, Amon took your bending away." Tenzin reminded her gently, speaking as he would to a small, confused child. His tone destroyed her.

"I know he did, Tenzin." Lin dropped down onto the bed, her head bowed and her hands lying in her lap. Tenzin sat down next to her. "I just thought maybe I imagined it, in some sort of nightmare."

"I only wish you had." replied Tenzin. He reached out and tentatively took Lin's hand in his own. To both Lin's and Tenzin's surprise, she didn't pull away.

"So what happened?" asked Lin. "All I remember after he took my bending was lying there... I don't know for how long... and then you were there, Tenzin. You lifted me up, and then I woke up here."

"I brought you here to Air Temple Island, that's correct." said Tenzin. "You were unconscious for days. I knew you weren't actually, _physically_ hurt- you just seemed so tired, so I let you rest. Then you started running a fever. It was to be expected, of course- you had been lying out in the rain for hours. I stayed with you."

Lin remembered, in her delirious haze, thinking she could feel Tenzin gripping her hand. _Maybe that wasn't just my imagination,_ she thought.

"Thank you." she whispered.

"Oh, Lin, it was nothing. I just wanted you to be all right." A frown came over Tenzin's face as he paused. "But you aren't, are you?"

Lin shook her head slowly, defeatedly. "No. My mother would kill me if she were here." she mumbled.

"What are you saying, Lin?"

"She taught me earthbending from the day I started walking, and now I've gone and lost it." explained Lin.

"You didn't _lose_ your bending. It was _stolen_ from you."

Lin shrugged. "Still."

"Lin, I promise that Toph wouldn't blame you." Tenzin said, giving her hand a squeeze. "She would be proud of you for standing up to Amon."

"Fine. If not my mother, then let's go down the list of other people I've let down." she snapped miserably. "I've let down Korra. I've let down my metalbenders. And… I've let you down, too, Tenzin."

"_Me?_" the airbender echoed incredulously. "Lin, what in the world makes you think you've let _me _down?"

"Korra and her friends are off finding Amon. I don't even know what's happened to my metalbending police force." explained Lin. "Now that I've lost my bending, who is going to protect you and your children?"

"I am perfectly capable of protecting myself and my family." Tenzin assured her.

"But what if you aren't?" Lin pressed on. "You and your children are the last of the airbenders, Tenzin. The last of your kind."

"We aren't your responsibility, Lin." Tenzin reminded her gently.

"But you need to be protected."  
>"Not by you."<p>

"Not anymore, at least!"

Tenzin stared deep into her pale green eyes. Then he took a deep breath, and sighed. "Lin, why don't you get some rest."

"I've been asleep for _days!_" shouted the woman. "I'm not _tired, _Tenzin! I may have lost my bending, but you've lost your _head_. Your children need to be protected. For heaven's sakes, they're only children, and they'll be the ones to carry on the airbending bloodline. You need those children, and _that's why you broke up with me!_" Her voice had escalated to a loud tone full of repressed hurt and anger by the end of it. It took Lin a few moments to realize what she'd said, and then she closed her eyes, letting her head fall back. "Oh, Tenzin. I'm so sorry. I never meant to-"

"Lin, I didn't break up with you because you didn't want to have children." Tenzin told her gently, laying a hand on her shoulder. "I broke up with you because we fought all the time. Of course, the fact that you didn't want children _was _an issue, but I would have worked around it. I would have persuaded you, or had children with one of the Air Acolytes when-"

"That's what you _did _do!" spat Lin. "With her. With Pema. Not when you were still with me, granted, but close enough… You think I would have been okay with that!? You, getting it on with some other woman when you were still with me? Tenzin, I was young, I never realized the importance of you having kids. I see it now, and although they aren't my kids, I'm trying to protect them. For you, Tenzin. For _us._"  
>"There is no <em>us<em>, Lin." Tenzin said. "Not anymore."

His words hit her like a punch in the stomach. Lin took a deep breath, pain spilling into her body. It wasn't the same pain as when she had had her bending taken away. It was different, but equally as agonizing.

"I guess I have no reason to be here, then." Lin replied curtly. "Goodbye, Tenzin."

"Lin, stop. I didn't mean it like that." Tenzin tried to remedy what he'd said. "Wait, Lin."

It was no use. She was already out the door.

end


End file.
